


version control

by smallerthanzero



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Tony and Bruce have a conversation about Vision, canon please let Tony have feelings about the sentient beings he creates, endgame spoilers, not technically a fix-it but it mentions Vision at least once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2020-02-29 23:40:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18788635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallerthanzero/pseuds/smallerthanzero
Summary: Tony's known three people with that voice - a father, a friend, a son. He's outlived all of them.Tony Stark does some time travel and catches feelings about a certain lost Avenger on the way.





	version control

**Author's Note:**

> me before Endgame: I've moved on to other fandoms, watching this movie is basically a courtesy call, i'm going to be completely fine  
> me after Endgame: _shit_
> 
> so I guess I'm going to write some fics and try to make sense of canon now
> 
> Also, this was written on a plane trip where I had to completely change my sleep schedule and it shows - please excuse any glaring inconsistencies.

It’s just gravity, in the end: he’s in space, floating hazily in dim-lit conversation and deoxygenated dreams, and then he’s back on Earth and everything is heavy again and he’s falling, falling, _falling_ -

“I lost the kid,” he rasps. An admission of guilt, only marginally lighter for the possessive he barely manages to avoid. The ground is soft under his feet after a month of metal decks; he has to dig his feet in just to stay standing. 

Steve, always the indulgent priest and never the confessor, takes his shoulder and leads him away and says nothing else about Tony’s family even as they scroll through lists of the casualties and a familiar scarlet-and-gold visage flickers into view. It's like seeing the fragments of JARVIS' core all over again.

It makes sense. Of course it makes sense. Vision was born from the Stones, the keeper of the Mind Gem, and to Thanos he was nothing but another receptacle to pry open. And yet, like all the other losses the universe has suffered in the past month, it is senseless.

Luckily, Tony’s not conscious for too much longer to care about it. 

\---

Five years later, one last mission, and Tony is _very much over_ having his family history thrown in his face while he's trying to save the world. 

And yeah, this one's kind of on him. He’ll be damned if he somehow lets the Tesseract get away from him again; he can handle Hurricane Howard Stark for a few minutes if it gets him out of the compound. Compared to their last stop, this is a piece of cake.

Then Jarvis climbs out from the driver’s side of his dad’s car and it blindsides Tony almost as bad as getting transitively bodyslammed by the Hulk.

Here’s the thing - meeting a past version of his father isn’t all that bad. The guy standing next to him juggling sauerkraut and flowers is practically a stranger. Maybe he’s seen him in a newsreel somewhere, that same wide-eyed wonder reserved for particularly wild tangents about the future, but he’s a far cry from the Howard Stark who needed Tony out of his line of sight at all times so he could concentrate. It’s easy to say the things he needed to hear back in the future before Morgan was born, knowing that none of it will ever matter.

But _oh, Jarvis_. Edwin Jarvis, who patched Tony's knees when he fell and drove him to move-in day at MIT and had a hand on his shoulder all the way through his parents' funeral. A man worth recreating.

Tony's already rocking forward on the balls of his feet, idly wishing he'd foregone the pseudonym so he could hear his name in that voice again, when he catches Jarvis' eye.

There's… nothing. 

Jarvis is a professional butler. He would never show himself to be nonplussed by the presence of an unexpected guest. But there's no recognition, none of the affection that's been on his face in every single memory he has of the man. 

He's abruptly reminded of a late and probably drunken night in college, training JARVIS to call him by name and being hurt every single time at how _different_ it sounded. Remembers the night Vision was born, hearing that voice and not knowing if it would ever sound familiar again. Thinks of another, later evening when Vision had phased into his lab at the Avengers Compound and asked dryly if he'd somehow fused himself to his chair and needed help getting up - he's pretty sure that his near hysterical response set Vision's sarcasm development back by months. 

Tony's known three people with that voice - a father, a friend, a son. He's outlived all of them. 

He rocks back, waves the two of them off, and wanders casually in Steve's direction without a backwards glance. 

\---

Bruce is a much better listener than he was post-Mandarin. 

It's almost like old times, ignoring that Bruce is permanently bigger and greener now, the two of them in the lab as Tony finalizes schematics for the gauntlet. Bruce takes his glasses off and plays with them, a familiar habit echoed in larger hands. 

"We could really bring them back tomorrow," he says quietly. "One snap, and they all come back."

Tony had to analyze the Mind Stone's composition and radiation this morning to see if the gauntlet material was compatible. With that and Natasha's sacrifice, he's keenly aware of who's coming back and who's not. "Not all of them."

Bruce fixes him with solid eye contact he wouldn't have managed five years ago. "Nat?"

"Among others." He sighs. "I saw Jarvis, back in the 1970s."

"Ah," Bruce says. "Vision?" Neither of them mention the possibility of bringing either Jarvis or JARVIS back. It's strange, the lines they've drawn between graves that should be dug up and those to remain untouched. Stranger still to find sources of unimaginable power and not figure out how to use them to the fullest. Maybe it's better to keep things simple.

"I didn't get to know him very well." Bruce sounds fairly apologetic considering that his reason for not being around is his alter ego rocketing him into space. "He seemed like a good person, though. Completely willing to sacrifice himself if it meant stopping Thanos." 

Tony grits his teeth. "Yeah, that's not - he was a _person_ , Bruce. He was terrible at cooking and he asked Pep to dance with him the first time he met her and he had a thing for a women who's said maybe two sentences to me that weren't death threats. I - we made him, and he was kind and smart and in love, and Thanos killed him." 

Bruce looks at him with a terrible sympathy. "He was like family to you, wasn't he. Just as much as JARVIS."

"Didn't really recognize it until Morgan, but… yeah. Yeah, he was." 

"It's harder to tell, when they come out fully grown," Bruce jokes. He's still playing with his glasses. "If there's anyone who was dragged into the whole Thanos situation, it's him. We could… if we're trying to get Nat back too, we could..."

The next day, Bruce tugs on the gauntlet. Tony can only hope that he's thinking of a certain someone when he snaps his fingers..

\--- 

It’s the end of the world (again), but this time there’s a new and refreshing twist where the Avengers get their own army to match whatever disposable soldiers Thanos has elected to hurl at them this time. Portals are opening all over the battlefield, friendly faces pouring out, and in the sparking orange of the one to Wakanda there’s a flash of scarlet-and-gold and - 

Vision is there, hand in hand with Wanda, scarlet magic flickering around the conspicuously bare plane of his forehead. Lacking the powers the Mind Gem afforded him, Tony guesses, and probably dealing with a temporary patch job from Wanda, but still more than ready to fight with a physical form offering far more strength and resilience than a normal human.

Tony smiles. Morgan’s going to love her new big brother.


End file.
